On February 24, 2022, the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict" finally let everyone once again see what is called modern warfare, which is simply dazzling, Russia uses a lot of high technology, including the most advanced satellite technology, because orbital reconnaissance satellites can provide the latest and most accurate military intelligence.
Speaking of satellite technology, it is necessary to mention the United States, the United States has the most advanced satellites in the world, even the United States commercial satellites are very advanced, as early as February 24, the United States commercial satellites pointed the lens at the Russian troops, took a number of high-definition satellite photos.
These satellite photos clearly show surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft rockets, transport vehicles, drone technology, ground attack aircraft, helicopter gunships, armored convoys, field hospitals, if you look closely enough, even people on the ground can find it, is it not incredible?
And these satellite photos are from the United States Maxar company's WorldView-3 satellite and GeoEye-1 satellite, WorldView-3 translated into Chinese is the worldview-3, before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, worldview-2 took a number of high-definition photos about the Beijing Winter Olympic venues, the clarity is not lost to Chinese commercial satellites.
How high-definition are Worldview-3 satellite photos?
Know how high-definition worldview-3 satellite photos are? The first thing to know is that the Worldview-3 satellite is an upgraded version of the Worldview-2 satellite, which is more sharp and powerful, and the Worldview-3 is a commercial Earth observation satellite that was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the United States on August 13, 2014.
Worldview-3, with a net weight of 2,800 kg and operates in a synchronous orbit with a perigee altitude of 619 km and an apogee altitude of 622 km, with an inclination of 97.91 degrees to the equator, is mainly used to observe meteorological data on clouds, aerosols, steam, ice and snow, and of course can also be used for military observation.
At the same time, the Worldview-3 satellite is the world's sharpest commercial satellite, with a maximum resolution of 0.31 meters for commercial panchromatic images, and even people on the ground can show it in the images, which is exactly the case, as evidenced by satellite photos of Russian troops.
Worldview-3 satellite also has the advanced technology of taking multi-spectral photos and short-wave infrared (SWIR) photos, to know that the camera has multi-spectral technology and short-wave infrared technology, can achieve night photography, in November 2021, four geological team members of Ailao Mountain disappeared, and finally found by infrared cameras.
The worldview-3 satellite has a multispectral photo resolution of 1.24 meters, although such a resolution can not find people, but can find military vehicles, tanks and aircraft, the worldview-3 satellite's short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera has a resolution of 3.7 meters, can be used to find large vehicles, aircraft and ships.
Worldview satellite also has the most advanced version of Worldview-4, Worldview-4 third generation commercial Earth observation satellite, clarity also reached a maximum resolution of 0.31 meters, also has multi-spectrum technology and short-wave infrared (SWIR) technology, but unfortunately in January 2019, the control torque gyroscope failed and has not been able to use normally.
The clarity of the U.S. GeoEye-1 satellite is few
In fact, Worldview-4 was formerly known as GeoEye-2, and was later renamed as an upgraded version of the GeoEye-1 satellite, which is also a high-resolution Earth observation satellite and was launched on September 6, 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the United States on a Delta II carrier rocket.
GeoEye-1 has a net weight of 1955 kg and operates in a low Earth orbit with an apogee altitude of 685 km and a perigee altitude of 673 km, with an equatorial inclination of 98.12 degrees, and although the clarity of GeoEye-1 is not as good as that of Worldview-3 and Worldview-4, it is also one of the few in the world.
The GeoEye-1 satellite has a telescope diameter of 1.1 meters and can take panchromatic and multispectral images with a maximum resolution of 41 centimeters for panchromatic images and up to 1.65 meters for multispectral images. In December 2009, the GeoEye-1 satellite downlink antenna was abnormal, and soon after it returned to normal, indicating that the quality of the GeoEye-1 satellite is still very reliable.
At last
Every major event will attract the observation of multinational earth satellites, the Suez Canal freighter stranding accident, the fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge problem in Japan, the tonga volcanic eruption, the Beijing Winter Olympics, all attract the earth satellites of many countries, so which country's observation satellites will be attracted this time of the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict"?
In short, with the continuous development of aerospace technology, the earth satellite photos are more and more high-definition, the satellite play a bigger and bigger role, taking pictures, positioning, tracking and navigation, communications, meteorological observation, forest observation, wildfire observation, military observation, scientific observation, space exploration, and starlink Internet, it is really cattle. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration